As entrepreneurs, we’ve all been there, that moment when everything that could go wrong does. Someone just quit, reports are due, you’re getting 3 hours of sleep, you needed to hire two more people three weeks ago. The dread that keeps making our stomachs feel like it’s on a rollercoaster comes from knowing that you have to train the new employee the second you hire them. YOU have to teach them. You have to put that massive to-do list on hold and train the new hire. That dread breeds procrastination, which breeds anxiety, which eventually leads to a moment where something will snap and break.
When I came across a quote by John F. Kennedy that reads, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining,” I saw the above scenario and processes.
Too often, we find ourselves in situations where there wouldn’t be this domino effect of dread, procrastination, and anxiety if we had a process in place. Unfortunately, the simple act of creating a process brings an entirely different level of the same emotions. It is a giant flaming ball of catch 22.
I can’t help you with the new hire, but I can help you get started on processes.
Step 1
Stop looking at processes as something that demands you to sit in a room for hours, and you can’t leave until it is done. Seriously, that is what nightmares look like!
Step 2
Start small. Block out 10 minutes on your calendar each day and be vicious about protecting the time before and after that 10-minute time frame. You start, and you finish in 10 minutes. Not a minute sooner or later.
Step 3
Grab the post-it notes or your trusty Trello board and write out one task. It doesn’t matter if it is at the beginning, middle or end. Write down another task and another. As you go, rearrange as needed.
Step 4
Rinse. Repeat.